Thursday, March 7, 2013

ATV Wild Ride 3D: Mexico Playthrough

1 comment:

Jools, my man, for years I have bestowed all of my knowledge to you through my comments in this blog. I was the very 1st to urge you into the world of side-scrollers while you still dreamt in 3D, I later pointed out the need for boss battles to allow these side-scollers to reach their maximun greatness, and later still I pointed out that the importance of scares far surpasses the importance of gore in a horror game.

I am amazed at the exceptional designer you have become. But there is a pressing issue I must discuss with you. You recently had a poll to see if more fans wanted Mutant Mudds 2 as a digital or retail release. And you said you found it interesting that fans voted in favor of retail release by a margin of more than 2-to-1.

Let me ask you this: why do we own a 3DS instead of an Ipod? Why do we cling to this 3DS even when the Ipod offers much more games and much cheaper games (as evidenced by Mudds being 800% cheaper on the app store)? The answer is simple: we are old school. We like buttons. And d-pads. And fully featured retail games. And traveling to a brick-and-mortar store to pick up our pre-ordered copy. And rushing home to tear off the plastic. And flipping through the manual. And last, but certainly not least, inserting that beautiful little cartridge and watching it boot up for the very 1st time.

In one sense I can completely understand why you travel the much easier path of digital distribution. But in another sense I am extremely saddened that this digital reliance betrays an era of gaming history that your titles represent.

Many factors make up my love for retail releases. I've already described the experience. I am also a collector at heart, like anyone who grew up on baseball cards and action figures. I like to see the case on the shelf. Or in a shoebox. I like to look at the back of the box from time-to-time. And I have a certain level of fear that the eShop may not exist in 10 years. And if the internal memory on my XL gets erased by some yet to be determined cause, that Monkey Bomb might be lost forever. Only you hold the keys to the future Jools, but for the sake of the past, I hope I one day stumble upon the 'Renegade Kid eShop Collection' at my local Best Buy